Sea of Legends: How to Play
How to Play Sea of Legends
Intro
Sea of Legends is a narrative-driven, open-world tabletop game for 1 - 4 players where you and your friends get to choose your own adventure!
Swashbuckle and swindle your way to victory as one of four unique captains.
Will you Raid ports? bury treasure? Fall in love? Or perhaps you'll defeat your nemesis only to become the most legendary pirate on the open sea!
The Basics
The first player to gain 10 Notoriety wins. There are seven paths to victory on the seven seas! You can gain notoriety 7 different ways.
By Burying 7 gold
By Completing an Adventure involving your Captain, Lover, or Nemesis.
By claiming a relic.
By Hiring a Notorious crew member.
By Building a Class 2 or 3 ship.
By defeating a boss.
Or finally…..
By Raiding a port. (Poor taste, dude. Why would you do that?)
Set-up
Each player starts with the following:
Their Captain card, token, and matching captain mini
7 Gold coins
3 Starter Crew cards
A Lover
A Nemesis
1 Class
1 Ship card
And 3 Adventure Markers! These tokens will correspond with either the Lover, Captain, or Nemesis.
Determine First Player
First things first! Roll to see who goes first! Highest roll goes first. The first player selects a captain card and matching mini, followed by the player with the next highest roll, until all players have chosen their captains.
Players will take their turn in the order they chose their captains, as shown on the compass rose.
Next, we’ll need to Set Up the Compass Rose
Place each captain token in the compass rose on the cop. The first player will be in the north slot and start with the NPC Controller token which will determine which player will control the Non player characters that round. The players will be placed into the compass in clockwise order from highest roll to lowest.
Then you will get to Pick Your Lover and Nemesis!
Deal out 3 random Character cards to each player. These are double sided with a lover side and a nemesis side. The player will choose one card to be their love and one to be their nemesis. The last one will be returned to the box.
In the app, select each captain that each of the players is playing with and then scan in their Lover and Nemesis cards. This is going to set the wheel of fate into motion!
Then you’ll Choose NPC Factions
Select two Factions out of the eight possible options to play with during the game. If you want an easier game, you can just pick one. The Factions determine what NPCs and Adventures you’ll encounter during play. They also have associated cards, tokens, and minis that should be set aside for use during the game.
You’ll find these components in the Faction Box and Refer to the Faction Guide for more information on their full rules.
Today, we’re playing with the Dread Tide - a faction of undead conquistadors who found the Fountain of Youth and it cursed them for an eternity. We’re also playing with the Children of Tlaloc (TLAY-LOCK) - ancient merfolk who have risen from the depths to reclaim their plundered relics.
After you’ve chosen your factions, shuffle the Tavern and Crew decks, and place them alongside the map. You'll gain items and crew from these decks during the Adventures.
Next place each Captain mini on the corresponding starting location listed on their card. The last player places a Spanish Galleon on a sea region (a region without a port).
You’re all set up now!
Let’s dive into the gameplay.
The Gameplay
Your game will be played in a series of rounds, divided into turns. Each round, all players will take a turn, then one player will control the NPCs on the NPC turn. This continues until one player has gained 10 Notoriety and wins the game!
On your turn, you may move and take one of the following actions:
You make Attack another player, NPC, or port
You may Visit a port
You may Go on an adventure
You can move and take an action in any order. So, you can take your action first and then choose to move after you’ve taken it.
Your movement is determined by the sails on your ship.
If a ships Sails value is 2, you can move up to two regions.
However, if you move into a region occupied by an NPC, you must stop and attack that NPC.
Thankfully, if you begin your turn in a region with an NPC, you may leave that region without attacking them and ruffling any feathers.
On the other hand, you may choose whether or not to attack a player when you enter a region they’re in. So, mind your fellow pirates! You might want them on your side for the time being.
Combat
Now…if you want to attack another player, NPC, or port, you’ll enter their region and gather your dice!
Any time you roll the dice, you are performing a Challenge, whether it’s combat or in an adventure. To start, you’ll have four (blue) base dice, and you can add (white) bonus dice.
Bonus dice are determined by your ship’s Cannons, Captain abilities, Items, Lovers, and Crew. Once your dice pool has been assembled, remove a die for each wound on your Captain.
But of course, pirates don’t play fair! Players will be using their Crew and Item cards to alter their dice results. Crew can be leveraged to offer all sorts of advantages! To activate them, you’ll “tap” your crew, turning them sideways. This exhausts them until you can rest up (at a hideout). Make sure you’re better equipped than your opponents before firing those cannons!
Dice Based Abilities
After you’ve rolled and adjusted the dice results using Crew or Items, assign dice to the abilities you want to use. Once you’ve finished applying your abilities, compare the total dice value against an NPC’s strength or a player’s opposing roll. The highest value wins and Attackers always win ties.
There are two types of character card abilities: passive and assigned abilities.
When resolving abilities, first check for any passives.
Passive abilities are always present. These abilities resolve when a specific condition is met. Some are based on dice rolls, but others are not.
Some passive abilities activate when the corresponding icons are rolled! These are indicated by the phrase, “If you roll.” Resolve the benefit or consequence of these abilities before allocating dice for assigned abilities.But, be careful! Nemesis abilities always resolve first, then Lover and Captain abilities. Keep in mind, passive abilities only activate once per challenge regardless of how many of a given icon are rolled.
Assigned abilities only activate when dice are assigned to that ability and pulled from the total dice pool. For assigned abilities, place the required dice alongside the card’s ability text. These dice are removed from the dice pool. You may activate the ability multiple times during a Challenge if you have enough dice to pay for it multiple times.
Resolving Combat
If you initiated combat and defeated another player, you may steal half of their gold rounded down or an item of your choice, and of course you wound them!
If you fail an attack, then you’ll simply take a wound.
If you defeat an NPC, take the reward indicated on their corresponding card and any items or gold they’re holding.
And if you successfully raid a port, you get to plant your flag there! You’ll gain the rewards indicated on the port’s flags and you now control that port… well…. at least until someone else takes it over. You’ll gain +2 gold at the end of each NPC turn for each port you control!
Port Actions
Now, if you’re in a port, you can take a port action! Depending on where you’re docked.
There are four types of port actions:
You may Visit a Tavern for easy gold and rumors of rare treasure
You may Purchase a better ship at the Shipyard
You may Find new recruits at the Hiring Hall
Or finally, you may bury gold and replenish your crew at a Hideout
When visiting a tavern, draw the top card of the Tavern deck and read it aloud. Then add it to your tableau. Each Tavern card has 3 sections.
A Tavern Game
A Rumor
And an Item
1. Tavern Game
Each Tavern card has a tavern game at the top of the card. Pirates always cheat, so pirates always win! You immediately gain a reward or choose between two possible outcomes when you pick up this card.
2. Rumor
After a few drinks, pirates get real chatty! Each Tavern card has a rumor of an item that you may find in a specific location on the map, or that you can claim immediately if it’s a consumable. Don’t forget to place the Tavern card in your tableau.
3. Item
Flip the Tavern card upside down to learn about the item mentioned in the rumor. There are two types of items: relics and consumables.
← Consumables are one-time-use cards that have a powerful but limited effect. You claim these immediately.
Relics are worth Notoriety and have their own special passive abilities. You have to move into the region indicated by the rumor to claim a Relic. But this doesn’t take up your action for the turn! →
The Shipyard
There are also areas of the board that you might choose to visit called the Shipyard. Here you may buy a Class 2 ship for 10 gold. If you have a Class 2 ship, you may buy a Class 3 ship for 15 gold. Alternatively, if you have 25 gold, you may immediately buy a Class 3 ship.
Class 2 ships are worth 1 Notoriety. Class 3 ships are worth 2 Notoriety bringing you one step closer to becoming the notorious pirate you’ve always aspired to be.
Hiring Hall
But that’s not the only cool place you can visit! When visiting the Hiring Hall, draw the top 3 cards of the Crew deck. You may hire as many of the drawn cards as you can afford. However, you can never have more crew than your ship can handle. If you hire more crew than can fit in your ship, you must discard crew down to your max crew size, as indicated by the Cabin value (hook hand icon).
Hideout
When you’re at a Hideout, you may heal all wounds, untap your crew, and bury gold in quantities of 7 to earn a point of Notoriety for each set of 7 gold buried.
Finally, a pirate can always choose Go on An Adventure!
It’s time for a tall tale of swashbuckling and swindling! Adventures allow players to make new allies and new enemies. Each adventure revolves around an important choice, but may also involve Challenges. These adventures interconnect with other players’ Lovers and Nemeses, along with the active Factions - and they mate even intersect with other player’s adventures - so tread carefully. You never know where the high seas will take you.
Each adventure will earn the player at least 2 points of Notoriety (3 for Captain Adventures) in addition to other rewards such as gold, relics, crew, and more.
When you want to go on an adventure, you’ll need to move to a region with the corresponding Adventure token (captain, lover, nemesis, or legendary), then you’ll either begin or continue your story!
Pass the device with the Sea of Legends app to the player on the left. They’ll read your story out loud so the rest of the table can savor your peril. During adventures you’ll be faced with decisions that will impact your Lover, Nemesis, or Captain, and even shape the world.
If you go on Adventures with a Lover, you will improve your relationship and unlock new abilities.
Lover Adventures
Each time you complete a step in your lover’s adventure, they'll gain a new ability. Mark each ability with a favor token when unlocked.
Keep in mind - Captains may have more than one Lover … or Nemesis. So, plunder as many hearts as you desire, or grind an axe with every cutthroat you meet! All is fair in love and war, especially when pirates are involved.
Nemeses
Your Nemesis has a series of negative abilities that you’ll need to watch out for. If left unchecked, they’ll grow stronger. To get them off your back, you’ll want to embark on a Nemesis adventure! Poison their grog, rob ’em blind, or charm their breeches off—there’s more than one way to deal with a Nemesis. Who knows, they may even become your lover?
Captain Adventures
A captain’s adventure is tied to the NPC Factions in play. You’ll get a chance to oppose or align with these factions during your adventures. Once you complete this quest - you’ll unlock a new and more powerful ability for your captain in addition to all the other goodies you might find.
Legendary Adventures
Some adventures will create new points of interest on the map! These Legendary Adventures always grant a player Notoriety for completing them, but any player can access them. So, it’s first come first serve - and often the adventures will change depending on who gets there first.
Those are the three player actions in detail! But you’re not the alone in the Carribean, the NPCs have their own goals and their own turn!
NPC Turn
On each NPC Turn, the player with the NPC Controller token will help enact the NPC Factions goals and objectives.
First, the NPC Controller draws from the NPC Action Deck. This card will determine what NPCs are placed on the board and if any other effects are active. [Flip over Undead Soldier card that ups their Strength]
NPC Action Cards
The players must follow the actions on the NPC Action cards. Each card has three effects that correspond to the strength of the matching NPC. These are cumulative! So the stronger the NPC, the more they’ll do!
Movement and Goals
Next, the NPC Controller moves all NPCs. NPCs have goals they want to accomplish. This might be related to an item, a character, or a region of the map. Each Faction Guide will have these rules in detail. [We’ll use the Undead Soldiers in the video]
Example: The Dread Tide’s Undead Soldiers will always move toward each other. If there are ever three or more Undead Soldiers on the same region - and the Skeletal Colossus is not already out - they transform into the Skeletal Colossus! The Colossus will move toward the nearest port and infest it upon entering!
If the Colossus is already out, then the Undead Soldiers will attempt to infest a port! If three or more make it to a port, you’ll remove one Undead Soldier, place an infestation token on that location, and split the remaining soldiers between adjacent regions. If the Dread Tide infests five ports then ALL PLAYERS LOSE!
Now you have some options.
In some situations, there will be multiple paths the NPCs can take to achieve their goals. In these cases, the NPC Controller decides where the NPC moves, but the player must always choose the most efficient path.
If there are no targets for an NPC to move toward, then they may be moved to an adjacent region of the Controller’s choice. No matter what, all NPCs must move on each NPC Turn.
If an NPC enters a region occupied by a player or an NPC from another faction, the NPC immediately attacks that character. If there are multiple targets in the region, the NPC Controller decides which one the NPC attacks.
NPC combat happens in the following steps:
Reinforcements. If there are other NPCs of the same type with enough movement to reach the combat and they have not moved this NPC Turn, the NPC Controller may move them into the contested region and add their ally bonuses to the attacking NPC.
Calculate Total NPC Strength. Take the base strength of the attacking NPC and add in any modifiers from allied NPCs and/or NPC Spawn cards. Do the same for the defender.
Calculate Player Combat Score. If in combat with an NPC, the player will roll their dice, check for passive abilities and assign dice as needed to resolve the total combat score. Refer to the Attack rules for more details on resolving player rolls.
Resolve Combat. The player or NPC that ends the combat with the highest strength or combat score wins. If there is a tie, the attacker wins. If an NPC loses the combat, they are removed from the board, along with all allied NPCs. The winning player or NPC gains all rewards indicated on the NPC card for each defeated foe.
After all NPCs have moved, resolve any NPC abilities. For example, Spanish Galleons will reconquer ports that they no longer control. The Skeletal Colossus will infest a port. If multiple NPCs are in a region, the NPC Controller chooses the order in which all abilities resolve.
Once all NPC abilities have been resolved, the NPC Controller token moves to the next player in turn order on the compass rose!
And that’s an entire round! Now you’re ready to take the plunge and forge your own Legend! Thanks so much for watching and tell us below which captain you would play!
*graphic of 4 captains and their names under*
Be bold, play games, be you! Happy gaming!